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Mountain West football teams must win to remain relevant

By Christopher DempseyThe Denver Post

Posted:
07/24/2013 12:01:00 AM MDT

Jim McElwain (Denver Post file)

LAS VEGAS — As Mountain West coaches and the league's commissioner, Craig Thompson, gathered Tuesday at the league's media day, all acknowledged the conference's growth and future inclusion in the national conversation are tied to one thing: performance on the field.

Colorado State coach Jim McElwain said the upcoming season, in which the MW will have 12 teams divided into two divisions of six each for the first time, is critical in getting the perception of the league changed.

"The next three to four years are really going to be telling," McElwain said. "The key word is relevant. We really need to make the Mountain West conference relevant. It's stability; you've seen teams go and come back and join. Yet, the one solid point is this conference has had huge wins against big programs. We need to keep that alive."

The return of Boise State and San Diego State to the MW after committing to leave for the Big East was "the best thing to happen to the Mountain West conference," McElwain said. "Because when they really did the research, they found out the grass is not greener and there is something special about the Mountain West conference — and they came back."

And yet Boise State's membership seems tenuous, at best.

The Broncos are the Mountain West's most buzzworthy team and have earned national respect over the past decade. Boise State coach Chris Petersen remains adamant that while his school thinks the Mountain West is a "good fit," if more conference changes take place, his school will do what's best for its program.

"Boise State would have to figure out what's best for Boise State," he said. "That's really what I think. I know this: Everybody is going to do what's best for their university, for their situation. That's the bottom line."

Chatter among the nation's five biggest BCS conferences is reaching a fever pitch on the subject of breaking off and forming their own federation, which would clear the path for those leagues to create legislation that best benefits them, schools with big budgets.

"The bottom line is everyone knows there are issues with the NCAA," Thompson said. "And we're trying to fix those issues, whether they be enforcement, the different ways of doing business. In the Mountain West alone we have almost a (double), 2½ split between the highest-rated football budget and the lowest-rated budget. And that's true of every conference. And then you put the conferences against each other. News flash: The SEC has larger budgets than the Mountain West conference."

While the big conferences talk about money and spending, others, including the Mountain West, counter by discussing the on-field product.

"Understand there's always a lot of posturing," said New Mexico coach Bob Davie, who previously coached at Notre Dame. "I hope there wouldn't be even a bigger divide between us.

"You look at (AFA's) Troy Calhoun, Jim McElwain, we're coaching exactly the same. (Ohio State coach) Urban Meyer was with me five years at Notre Dame; Nick Saban and I grew up together, basically. We're coaching the same way as the Alabamas, the Ohio States of the world. Our kids are doing the same things. Our stadiums might not be as big, but it's the same kind of programs. I would hate to see some kind of major divide between us."

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